Skill based chat function in a communication system

Abstract

The apparatus and method provide assistance to an agent in a communication system, such as a communication system having an automatic call distributor. The method has the steps of determining skills of each agent of a plurality of agents, storing the determined skills for respective agents of the plurality of agents as skill records in a database, retrieving the skill record of a predetermined agent from the database, comparing the skill record of the predetermined agent to the skill records of the other agents in the database, selecting an agent from the plurality of agents based on the comparison of skill records, and establishing communication between the predetermined agent and the selected agent. The skill record of a predetermined agent is retrieved when the predetermined agent of the plurality of agents requests to communicate with another of the agents of the plurality of agents. The apparatus implements the method. The method and apparatus provide the ability for an agent or an inbound caller to solicit assistance from a group of similarly or higher skilled agents, especially in remote environments where, in the case of an agent, the agent does not have direct contact with other agents.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The field of the invention relates to communication systems and, in particular, to systems with automatic call distributors. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Automatic call distribution systems are known. Such systems are typically used, for example, within private branch telephone exchanges as a means of distributing telephone calls among a group of agents. While the automatic call distributor may be a separate part of a private branch telephone exchange, often the automatic call distributor is integrated into and is an indistinguishable part of the private branch telephone exchange. [0003] Often an organization disseminates a single telephone number to its customers and to the pubic in general as a means of contacting the organization. As calls are directed to the organization from the public switch telephone network, the automatic call distribution system directs the calls to its agents based upon some type of criteria. For example, where all agent...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This, however, is administratively very cumbersome.

Disadvantageously, such call centers do not use agent attributes across different groups.

This may lead to an inefficient utilization of call center resources.

Moreover, these communications handling centers do not allow for easy administration and re-assignment of agents to queues, while maintaining agent skill-sets.

However, in some automatic call distributor systems the agents are specialized in handling particular types of calls, so the first-in / first-out technique is not appropriate.

Utilizing a first-in / first-out technique in such a situation is inappropriate, because a caller with a question regarding the word processing program may be routed to an agent having specialized knowledge regarding the database program or the spreadsheet program, rather than being routed to an agent with specialized knowledge in the word processing program.

These known systems do not have the functionality to allow agents and inbound callers to “chat” in a single environment.

This results in a loss of efficiency in the amount of time it takes to obtain a response to a question.

Furthermore, in the computerized “rooms” that are dedicated to a subject area, as the number of participants becomes greater, it is difficult to follow the thread of a transaction.

To handle large chat sessions, providers, such as AOL, place participants into rolls, isolated from other chat members, and thereby limit the availability to find the solution to an inquiry.

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